


Suspended In My Own Mind

by PearOfTheStars



Series: Rebirth [1]
Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club, NormalBoots
Genre: :wink:, Austin is a doctor in this I guess, But it's also like mostly fictional science stuff so shh forgive me, Implied Resurrection, Laboratories, Like very extremely minor, Medical Inaccuracies, Science, Science tagged twice because why not, Scientific tests and all that jazz, Secret character isn't too hard to figure out but, Some extremely minor mention of bad body stuff, almost definitely, audio clips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-25 09:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22493713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PearOfTheStars/pseuds/PearOfTheStars
Summary: “Log two-hundred-twenty-seven, Chief Medical Officer Hargrave. The date is uhh... Where’s the date on this thing again… Oh, right, it’s the thirteenth, February. It is currently – err – five in the morning. Fuck… I clocked out at three in the morning and retired to my dorm. I was alerted by the emergency alarms going off."
Series: Rebirth [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618273
Comments: 12
Kudos: 8





	1. Peacefully Ignorant

**Author's Note:**

> Yoooo
> 
> It's been a while since I wrote something postable that wasn't a depression vent, so yeehaw, here's something new that isn't horribly sad! It is a little sad but like not really. It could be worse tbh
> 
> Anyway uh I can't think of any warnings, other than the aforementioned in the tags extremely minor mention of Secret Character's body being a bit fucky. I guess possibly a warning for medical equipment? Might as well, better safe than sorry.

“Log two-hundred-twenty-seven, Chief Medical Officer Hargrave. The date is uhh... Where’s the date on this thing again… Oh, right, it’s the thirteenth, February. It is currently – err – five in the morning. Fuck… I clocked out at three in the morning and retired to my dorm. I was alerted by the emergency alarms going off.

“Subject’s lungs collapsed inwards and the subject now requires respiratory assistance. I attempted to manually restart the subject’s breathing but was unsuccessful. The subject is currently attached to an EMX assisted breathing machine and will remain connected until a proper solution is found. Subject shows no other sign of deterioration, all vitals are cleared. Ocular and neural connection shows REM as usual. I have no fucking idea what made his lungs give out but honestly, I’m too tired to figure it out right now. He’s breathing, that’s good enough until I get some sleep.”

Austin sighed, ending the recording. He leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs out in front of him, stretching his arms up until his back made a series of cracks. He groaned, letting his arms come back down to his sides. He really needed some sleep… and perhaps a better desk chair.

Pushing himself up from his desk, Austin collected the few necessities he had to bring with him. His all-access key card, his glasses, and the vault door clicker. He slid his glasses back onto his face, even the gentle weight on his nose and temples not assisting with his rising headache in the slightest. But, alas, he had to be able to see or he would walk into a wall instead of the doorway.

Austin slid the key card on its lanyard around his neck. He kept the vault clicker in his hand, taking a few steps towards the tank.

It wasn’t too terribly large; about ten feet tall, maybe a little more give or take. It was as wide as the average human wingspan, or so Austin had been told. It was illuminated by a row of lights on both the top and bottom of the tank frame. All of the lights were angled towards the center, where the subject floated, suspended in a blue fluid.

The subject’s arms were pulled upwards, seemingly locked together at the wrists, all of his fingers splayed. Similarly, his feet were pointed down, his ankles together. It was easier to keep an eye on any possible surface level deformations this way. His eyes were closed, his head hung gently, tipped downwards.

He was completely stagnant other than the rise and fall of his chest, though now even that was stiff. His mouth was parted slightly for a tube, fed through his normal oxygen mask. The breathing machine filled his chest with air, keeping his lungs from deflating completely with every even exhale.

Things were going so well, too, Austin sighed again to himself. The subject had been responsive to tests in the past week, giving them clear yes or no answers. There were still some _bugs_ in the system, but for the most part, the subject seemed to at least be cooperating finally.

Austin remembers the elation in the room when they got the first clear _yes_ , the robotic voice programmed to feed them the subject’s answers audibly coming through loud and unwavering.

-

_No one was hoping for anything that day. It was a routine procedure. Draining the tank, detaching the dozen or so cables from the subject, keeping the subject iced, inspecting his physical state, cleaning the tank, putting the subject back in the tank, hooking the subject back up to his support cables, filling the tank back up, inspecting his mental state. It happened once every two weeks, people were used to this._

_Austin would have never called himself a scientist if that wasn’t his job title. He was a doctor, at heart, and even then. He never wanted to be, not really, the entirety of the academic field was more his brother’s area of expertise. Austin was just… a goof, an idiot, he played around too much to do anything so serious. Yet, here he was, after struggling his way through medical school and accepting the strange offer emailed to him not a week after his graduation; an invitation to a company that could use his_ services _._

_“The tank is at one-hundred percent capacity,” One of his co-workers said._

_“His vitals are all reading fine, he’s stable,” Austin answered, giving permission to the neural team to begin their jobs._

_Austin stood back. He technically wasn’t needed anymore, though he did like to stay around unless something happened; good or bad. He wouldn’t want to have to come running back in if the alarms went off, alerting everyone in the facility that the subject was unstable. He also wouldn’t want to miss something particularly cool or interesting. He wouldn’t exactly call his part of the job interesting – he just kept the subject’s body in the best condition it could be – so watching the other team work was a better part of his day._

_“Brain activity is low, but reading,” Someone off to Austin’s side said._

_“Shall we attempt the sound test?” Another asked._

_“Might as well,” Someone chuckled. “It’s like calling a dead line, but hey, maybe today’s the day our little boy says his first word.”_

_The neural team went about setting up the sound test. It was simple, really. They were blasting information directly into the subject’s audio system. All signs always showed the signal got through, but if it was acknowledged, they didn’t know. They had never gotten a ping from the response line._

_People gathered around the woman sitting in front of the main computer, typing in inputs and loading up the sound test protocol._

_She eventually cleared her throat, motioning with her hand for everyone else to stay quiet. She pulled a stand microphone sitting on the desk closer to her._

_“Hello there,” She said softly. “Can you hear me?”_

_There was no response. No one was really shocked. This test had been tried for months and they hadn’t gotten a single word in return. The woman, undeterred, continued._

_“Hello there,” She repeated. “Can you hear me?”_

_YES_

_The screen lit up with the words, the speakers echoing with the gritty, metallic voice of the machine relaying the subject's speech. Inside the tank, he made absolutely no sign of movement._

_“Oh holy fuck-,” The woman jumped in place. It seemed almost everyone else did, too._

_There was electricity in the air, everyone was dead silent, but screaming in elation on the inside. They didn’t want to mess up the test, but excited eyes flickering to fellow co-workers and excited mouthing of ‘did that really happen’ were signs that all of the scientists in the room were thrilled. They were_ ecstatic _._

_The woman placed a hand over her chest, taking a sharp breath before leaning closer to the microphone again._

_“H-hello there,” The giddy joy was leaking through her tone. “I-, oh Jesus, I’m talking to a corpse.”_

_She took another set of deep breaths, calming herself down, muttering under her breath that they needed the data, it was okay, she could do this._

_“Hello,” She started up again. “Do you know your name?”_

_YES_

_“Oh, wonderful,” She smiled up at the limp body suspended in the blue, swirling liquid. It was hard to believe that was who was talking to her. “Can you say your name for us please?”_

_NO_

_YES_

_“…Huh,” She frowned. The woman turned back to her coworkers, who had paused from taking notes and recording the entire interaction to look quizzically at the set of responses they had just gotten. “So you… can or cannot?”_

_YES_

_“Yes can or yes can’t?”_

_YES_

_“I think it might only have the capacity for yes or no answers right now,” Another neural worker piped up. “Ask it just one question at a time.”_

_“Right,” The woman cleared her throat. “So, you cannot say your name?”_

_YES_

_“Is it because you only know how to say yes or no right now?”_

_YES_

_“So, you know your name, but cannot say it, correct?”_

_YES_

_Austin chuckled to himself. This was amazing… He’d spent so much time with the subject, making sure he was in perfect condition, staying late in the lab to log anything new that had happened during the day with only the silent tank as company._

_It was nice to hear his voice… even if it wasn’t his._

_-_

Austin shook his head, taking himself out of his thoughts. He smiled fondly. All their work really was paying off in the end…

He looked up at the subject, watching his chest rise and fall with perfect, automated breaths.

“Happy birthday,” Austin said out loud. He got no response, not that he expected one. Austin shook his head again, almost scolding himself for celebrating on behalf of the subject. It was kinda stupid, celebrating the birth of a man who’s lived twice, but whatever, Austin liked to think it was courteous.

He clicked the top button on the vault remote, the metal doors sliding to close around the subject’s tank for the night, the lights flickering off.

Austin took towards the exit, hiding a yawn behind his hand. He definitely needed some sleep.

-

Another fortnight, another routine inspection; another round of draining the tank, detaching the dozen or so cables from the subject, keeping the subject iced, inspecting his physical state, etcetera, etcetera. Another round of confirming his vitals were fine, only with a short detour to yet again attempt to manually jumpstart his respiratory system. The breathing aid seemed to have helped, seeing as when the tube was removed from his throat the subject continued to breathe passively on his own. Hopefully his lungs wouldn’t become a reoccurring problem, because they still couldn’t find what caused them to stop functioning in the first place.

Austin sat back once again, knowing there wasn’t much for him to do but watch as the neural team had a conversation with the subject.

“Hello again,” The usual communications woman smiled into her microphone. “How are you today?”

The subject had taken to answering most questions with yes or no still, but occasionally they would get lucky and get another one-word answer out of him. For example, when asked how he was he would complain about being cold, saying ‘cold, bad’ repeatedly. Or when he was given other audio stimuli, like music, he would say ‘yes, good’ or occasionally ‘no, bad’. It wasn’t much, but it was still incredible he was speaking at all.

This time, however, there was nothing. The woman frowned, double-checking to make sure her microphone was plugged in and the program was running.

“Hello?” She sounded a little worried. The subject had been so good about talking to them… They were slowly building up his vocabulary, able to get him to remember speech patterns for short amounts of time. No one wanted to get set back to square one.

But, just as the neural team started to quietly murmur amongst themselves, the screen lit up. The metallic voice of their subject came crackling through the speakers.

[HAPPY](https://clyp.it/hligbnxs)

[BIRTH](https://clyp.it/hligbnxs)

[DAY](https://clyp.it/hligbnxs)


	2. Oh, and there was music in his head. He could hear it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He hadn’t moved. Of course he hadn’t. That’d be ridiculous...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no way I am going to upload consistently BUT I will try,,, we shall see
> 
> Also @ y'all from the discord checking this out,,, i hope you guys are doin well fr have a good day all of y'all mwah,, no reason just hoping people are happy lov u all,,

“Log two-hundred-thirty-nine,” Austin dragged a hand down his face, pausing for a moment to push his glasses up and pinch the bridge of his nose. “Chief Medical Officer Hargrave. The date is April fifteenth. The time is… too fuckin’ early… it’s four in the morning. The emergency alarms went off _again_.”

Austin sighed. He swore he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in what must have been… about two months. Of course it was his job to go inspect the subject at ass-o-clock in the morning; he was the lead medic, after all.

“Subject’s lungs have collapsed, again. The subject is attached to an EMX assisted breathing machine, indefinitely or until further notice. Pain in the ass… Supervisor’s gonna get on me. _Keep him as organic as possible_ , as if it’s as easy as it sounds. I’m not going to risk the eighth emergency alert in two months, he needs the damn EMX.”

Austin scowled. His supervisor was a nice man, really. Austin was glad he wasn’t awful, he was just _very_ dedicated to his work, and he _insisted_ the subject be kept as _clean_ as possible; which to him meant keeping the subject mostly free from any _permanent_ alterations, even if they were also organic. It made sense, given what exactly the end goal was, but still… If it was up to Austin, he would have replaced the subject’s lungs the second time around or at least installed an internal EMX.

Austin was seriously considering doing it without mentioning it; easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, after all. The subject needed to breathe, the machine helping him do so currently was loud and large. It was a pain to feed the tube into the tank, a pain to have around, and a _real_ pain that it wasn’t a permanent fix. As much as Austin cared for the subject, having to sacrifice as many nights as he already had to fix the same damn issue was starting to grate on him.

Austin yawned into his hand, scrunching his eyes closed. He needed to wrap up so he could get back to bed.

“Anyway, the subject’s vitals are otherwise fine, REM as usual. I wish I could sleep as well as he does.”

Austin chuckled to himself. He ended the recording before leaning back in his chair. He hummed letting his eyes close for a moment. The lights reflecting off the blue liquid in the tank in front of him soaked through his eyelids. Austin usually didn’t turn on many lights in the lab if he had to be there late, just so his eyes wouldn’t burn in his skull, so the blue was bright, lighting up the room around it.

The past couple of months had been… strange. In a good way, really. Their progress with the subject had seemingly tripled since February thirteenth.

_Happy birthday_ , Austin smiled fondly. The subject had repeated his words, he heard Austin. It was the most the subject had ever talked at once. It wasn’t a short, one-syllable answer. It was multiple words, multiple syllables… and he had repeated it from something he heard. It was _amazing_.

Austin had to admit, he was a little proud that he had some hand in the subject’s upgrade in speech. He found himself thinking of the subject as someone under his care, he was often in the lab late with only the blue glow from the tank as company and he had grown accustomed to the presence of the still being. He got defensive for the subject’s sake when his supervisor refused to let him help, just for the sake of keeping the subject _clean_.

It was a little odd, growing so attached to someone – most of his co-workers would say some _thing –_ so… absolutely unresponsive. But humans are pack animals, after all. Austin was guilty on multiple occasions in the past of bringing home sad-looking plants being sold at the grocery, bonding immediately with whatever wilting flower or succulent was on the shelf, determined to nurse it as best as he could. He supposed the subject was only a little different from that.

He had been rapidly improving his speech since the _birthday_ incident. The subject was now speaking up to three words at a time, and was also doing well with remembering more complex patterns. The neural team had gotten him to say colors, animals, articles of clothing, furniture, materials, etcetera. It was amazing, really, just how fast the subject had gone from speaking only in yes and no answers to having the speech capabilities of a toddler. Amazing…

The subject always complained about being cold, upgrading his statement from ‘cold, bad’ for example, to ‘it is cold’, or ‘I am cold’; which was a discovery in itself that the subject fully identified himself independently. Also amazing.

It was so rewarding, seeing all their hard work finally pay off. The subject was flourishing, he was learning so quickly. Now… if Austin could only fix his damn lungs for good he would really be on the road to recovery.

Austin opened his eyes, looking up at the subject. He was suspended in space, as he always was, his arms pulled up above his head, his toes pointed down, his head tipped forward, looking towards the floor with closed eyes. His chest rose and fell artificially, the breathing machine whirring outside the tank.

Everything would be worth it in the end.

Austin picked up his key card, and the clicker to the vault remote, whistling gently to himself as he stood up from the desk, the noise echoing in the empty lab. He started walking towards the door, pressing the top button of the clicker, but instead of the metal doors closing around the suspension tank, he heard a voice. It echoed from the main computer; a gentle, instructional female voice.

_Testing currently in progress, please do not close vault chamber doors until the testing program has ended. Thank you._

Huh?

Austin frowned, walking back to the central controls. He was pretty sure these got turned off once everyone left for the night…

Strange.

He looked up at the subject. He hadn’t moved. Of course he hadn’t, Austin huffed. That’d be ridiculous.

Oh well, Occam's razor and all that. One of the neural techs probably just left something running. Most people didn’t like staying late if they could help it, which Austin very much understood. Someone must have just been in a hurry to clock out.

Austin opened up the programs list, selecting the only one showing as running. It was the sound test. Also strange… to Austin’s knowledge, there hadn’t been a sound test that day. Then again, he wasn’t part of the neural team, it might have just happened when he was out of the room.

Austin selected the program, hovering the mouse over the option to end the test.

“Good night,” Austin mumbled. He ended the task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ope-


	3. The World (and the way it makes you feel afraid)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Austin is absolutely not a fan of being in a large room filled with a lot of people, and is even less of a fan of making a speech for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Austin rly said :social anxiety: and i felt that fr

Austin hated business events. He hated them. He _hated_ them. He’d say it a hundred times and yet his supervisor would still insist he had to go.

Austin didn’t understand why they all had to dress up and pretend they were all having a good time. Most people were permanent residents of the facility. STYX was good to its employees, Austin only had one real problem with living on-site, and that was that he never really felt off the clock. If he was called in he was expected to respond. Anyway, Austin had been living in the same vague-general space as his co-workers for, what, three years now? Yet he was still expected to show up in black tie to a staff event like Austin hadn’t seen most of them at fuck-all in the morning wearing pajamas in the lab. Yeah, there would be other people there, too – sponsors mostly – but Austin didn’t really give a shit what they thought of him. Well... He sorta did. On a professional level, yes, but they didn’t have to be best friends with him for them to invest in the project.

But, as much as he complained, he was the head medic. Chief Medical Officer Hargrave, blah blah blah, he was expected to be at the event. Yadda yadda wee-shnaw bull-shit.

“And have a speech prepared,” His supervisor noted. “Just something short. Our sponsors would love to hear what good progress you’ve made lately, I’m sure.”

A speech… Just another thing for Austin to complain about. He would keep this one to himself, however, because as much as Austin considered his supervisor a nice man, for the most part, he could tell the other man’s patience was wearing thin.

“E’yessir,” Austin muttered.

“Also, try not to curse. Your logs are unprofessional enough, at _least_ try and be a little polished in front of the people who provide all of our paychecks.”

“Yessir,” Austin sighed. So, he had to present a very professional speech in front of sponsors while wearing a suit. Fantastic. At least he got to talk about the subject, that he could look forward too. The subject had been making still remarkable progress in almost every way. His lungs were still busted, but despite Austin’s silent threat to just fix them without telling his supervisor, he hadn’t done it yet. The subject was still hooked up to the big, clunky EMX. Nothing else had failed, though, so they were lucky it was still just the one problem.

“Good,” Austin’s supervisor also sighed. He was stressed, if that wasn't obvious. He no doubt would take care of the whole thing on his own if he wasn’t positive it would be beneficial for Austin to show up. People liked putting work to a name and a face, Austin guessed.

“Dr. Schlickbernd,” Someone popped their head in the doorframe. “Sorry to bother you, you’re being called up to floor two.”

Austin’s supervisor sighed, nodding. He was constantly being called up to check on other floors. No other project was really as _big_ as the one he was assigned to, but somehow the others still needed help more often.

“I’ll be right there. Do you know what for?” He asked.

“No, sorry,” The other person winced. “They just seem adamant to see you.”

“Alright,” The supervisor nodded again. “I’ll be up in just a minute.”

The other person also nodded sharply and then disappeared from the doorframe.

“Well, it seems like I have important business, then,” Dr. Schlickbernd returned his attention to Austin. “You work on that speech, and _please_ find something nice to wear for Saturday.”

“Will do,” Austin mock saluted his supervisor. “Good luck with whatever the other floor wants.”

“Thanks,” Dr. Schlickbernd sighed. “Now go on, get back to work.”

“E’yessir.”

-

Austin felt like a goddamn rotisserie chicken. The tie around his throat may have well been a noose, seeing as the air itself seemed to be trying to strangle him. There were too many people, _far_ too many people.

As much as he hated to admit it, he had gotten used to the isolation the lab provided. Most of the time it was people working independently or in small groups. It had become comfortable to maybe only see three other people in the lab all day, depending on what test was being conducted at the time. The absolute _stuffed_ room full of people all dressed to impress was horrible and Austin was suddenly disappointed in himself for not pushing back more on insisting he just couldn’t attend.

“Todd,” Austin choked weakly. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

He was standing close to the stage, filtering the words the STYX president was saying in one ear and out the other. Dr. Schlickbernd was at his side, idly swishing a thin glass of champagne in his hand.

“It’ll be fine,” Austin’s supervisor insisted. “If you really freeze up while you’re up there, just wrap up quickly and introduce Dr. Sizemore. Your work is only half of the project, after all.”

“…Right,” Austin took a deep breath. He could manage that… probably.

“That’s your queue,” Dr. Schlickbernd tipped his glass gently towards the stage. Austin looked up dumbly, having completely missed whatever it was his queue was supposed to even be. Austin took a sharp inhale, forcing his legs to move. He walked stiffly to the stairs, doing his best not to look out over the crowd of people. He walked up to the microphone, awkwardly loosening his tie just a bit before grasping the mic stand.

“Hello there,” Austin forced a smile. He was shaking, just a little bit, anxiety getting the best of him as he looked out over the sea of heads. Most of them were people he knew… People he had lived with for years, he reminded himself. But others were _important_. He had to show them why they should care about what they were doing here, even if they didn’t particularly care for the doctor talking to them.

“My name is Doctor Austin Hargrave, Chief Medical Officer of the Initiative Program here at STYX,” Austin took a breath. He could do this. He glanced over to the side, seeing Dr. Schlickbernd looking expectantly at him. He was surely praying Austin didn’t fuck this up. “It’s no secret that the main attraction to our company is the STYX Initiative Program. It is true that our medical equipment has made leaps and bounds in the field; the EMX, a machine hailed as a miracle, helping patients breathe easy; the RCX, with the capabilities to reproduce structurally identical functioning human body cells. Both incredible additions to the medical field, undeniably.”

Austin let himself breathe for a moment as the crowd clapped politely.

“However,” Austin continued. “As I said, the STYX Initiative Program strives to take even more steps in the direction of progress. As you all know, the true goal of STYX is to not only continue to engineer and produce groundbreaking products but to continue to push the boundaries of what modern medicine considers possible.

“The Initiative Program seeks to not only push those boundaries, but to shatter them. We at STYX believe that our time is not limited, and that, in fact, it is possible not only to extend the ticking clock of life, but to wind it back; we truly believe in the return from the other side of the river. I, as Chief Medical Officer, have overseen a team of brilliant doctors working tirelessly to make our belief a reality.”

Austin was starting to get exhausted at this point. All the eyes on him were starting to _really_ get to him. Hopefully he had put on enough of a show and had talked for long enough that both the sponsors and Todd were satisfied.

“However, the physical wellbeing of our subject is only a part of our program. The other half must be accredited to our neural team, who have done an incredible job in their own respects. I would like to hand the microphone off to Dr. Sizemore, Chief Officer of the neural team, and allow him to talk more in-depth about his team’s involvement in the project.”

Austin sighed heavily, the sound being swept away by the claps of the crowd. Austin forced another quick smile, waving curtly before hurrying towards the stairs. He brushed passed a tall, chipper man on his way down; Dr. Sizemore. Austin didn’t see him much, he wasn’t as involved in on-site tests as the rest of his team, he was mostly tasked with sifting through and analyzing their work.

“Hello there! My name is Doctor Luke Sizemore,” Austin heard echo through the speakers set on either end of the stage. “I am pleased to announce that our Initiative Program subject has been responding extremely positively to stimuli. The subject’s vocabulary has grown exponentially over the past few months, and we truly believe that it is only due time until the subject is able to begin to regain control of the rest of its body.”

“You talked a lot, but said nothing,” Todd muttered to Austin as he came down from the stage.

“I did my best,” Austin grumbled.

“I didn’t say that was a bad thing,” Dr. Schlickbernd mused, taking a light sip of his champagne. “You did a good job at saying interesting things that have little meaning if you think about it too hard.”

“…Thanks?” Austin’s brow furrowed. That was… good, right?

“It’s good to keep them interested without giving away everything we’re doing. Better safe than spill our secrets,” Todd chuckled. “I just think you did a good job, is all.”

“Oh,” Austin said blankly. “Thanks…”

They both went silent, listening idly to Dr. Sizemore rattle on about how the subject was doing, how well the tests were going and how optimistic the entire team was for the future of the project. He talked animatedly, obviously genuinely excited about his work.

Austin’s brow furrowed when Luke circled back around to the sound tests. Austin figured he should probably tell Luke someone on his team had been slacking; it wasn’t good to keep programs running all night for no reason.

His train of thought was interrupted by the crowd around him clapping, up on the stage Luke tipped his head in a small bow before he stepped out of the way for the leader of the project to take a spot at the microphone once again.

Austin sighed, letting his shoulders sink.

“Can I head out?” He asked Todd. His and Luke’s speeches were both done… all that was going to happen now was more mingling and small talk, maybe their director talking up how much the support of the sponsors means to the company, and the Initiative Program.

“Not yet,” Todd said, half paying attention to the director still. “People will want to talk with you. Ten minutes minimum, then you can leave.”

Austin grumbled but nodded reluctantly.

He hated business events…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luke is heree,,,,, :) Todd is hereeee,,,, :)) Some more hints are dropped,,, :)))


	4. Exit Wound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation and a realization.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I literally have no idea how long this is going to end up being i have nothing planned oh well

Austin stumbled bleary-eyed down the corridor. The motion-activated lights shone a path in the direction he was going, but his tired eyes still made the hallway in front of him swim. Every part of him was drowsy, and a part in the back of his brain _screamed_ at him, telling him he should _really just fucking fix the subject’s lungs, like, for real, because waking up in a cold sweat at three in the morning realizing he hadn’t changed the filter on the EMX earlier the previous day like he should have was absolute bullshit._

One of his hands stayed on the wall, catching his weight when he tripped over his own feet. He had shoved his feet into his shoes without any socks, wrapping his lab coat over his sleepwear so he was at least somewhat presentable for his own sake. It wasn’t like he was planning on running into somebody so deep in the lab so late at night, but he wasn’t about to go wandering around barefoot, not with machinery about and the very real possibility of stubbing his toe he would rather avoid.

He squinted, straining his eyes even with his glasses on and wondered for a moment if he was hallucinating from drowsiness when he saw a light coming from around the corner up ahead. That was, until someone came around the corner, the lights behind them clicking off as they stepped forward, only to have another beam of light illuminate the path in front of them. The other person loomed tall, their face cast in patches of shadow as the only light came from directly above them, aside from the one above Austin.

It was Dr. Sizemore, Austin realized, though it took him an embarrassing amount of time to figure it out, and it only really hit him once the other man had begun to make his way towards Austin. He wasn’t exactly firing on his best thrusters at the moment. Luke came closer, both of the scientists pausing a little ways away from each other in the tight hallway.

“Dr.Hargrave,” The neural officer flashed a quick smile. It was obviously meant only to be polite, but Dr. Sizemore always had an air of earnesty to his actions. “Odd to see you up so late.”

“It’s a common occurrence, actually,” Austin mumbled, scrubbing at his eye with the back of his hand. He really wished it wasn’t all as common as it was for him to be fumbling his way down dark hallways to the lab when he would really prefer to be asleep. “I have to change the filter on the subject’s EMX, forgot earlier, would rather not have him breathing dust.”

“Him…” Luke said softly. His brow furrowed, his eyes drifting to the side for a moment. Austin knew it was much more common practice in the lab to refer to the subject as ‘it’, but Austin found that just out of his comfort zone. The subject had been just like them in the past, surely he deserved the same respect now, even strung up in a suspension tank being routinely tested on. Some part of him was still _human_ in there, wasn’t it? Still, Dr. Sizemore’s reaction to Austin’s use of the pronoun was a bit… odd.

“Right,” Luke finally cleared his throat. “Well, I know for one I wouldn’t want to be breathing dust. Only fair the subject shouldn’t be either.”

He beamed, chuckling lightly. Austin huffed out a weak laugh in return.

“Yeah. His lungs aren’t exactly doing great right now in the first place, I’d rather he at the very least be breathing clean air.”

“Understandable,” Luke nodded lightly. Austin muttered another _yeah_ under his breath.

They stood in silence for a moment, leaving Austin completely unsure of where to pick up the conversation, or if he even should. As much as he found himself down dark hallways late at night, it was far less common for him to run into anyone during his insomnia drunk walks; he didn’t exactly know where the line through casual office talk between co-workers was drawn in the intimate space of a narrow hallway past midnight. Luckily, it seemed like Luke had him covered.

“Well, I won’t stall you any longer, then,” Luke flashed another quick smile. “Do what you have to and then get back to bed. It’s late, after all.”

“Uh, yeah, right,” Austin cleared his throat. He stood up a little straighter, having found himself tipping sideways into the wall at some point during their conversation. “Will do.”

Luke hummed to himself, nodding lightly as if in approval. He started walking past Austin, back down the dark hallway Austin had just come from, the lights flicking on above him and off behind him as he walked. Austin suddenly remembered something, turning around before Luke could get too far.

“Oh, hey, uh, Dr. Sizemore,” Austin called at the other man’s back. Luke paused, looking over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised.

“I just thought you should know,” Austin continued now that he had the doctor’s attention. “I was down here the other week. The sound test was left running on the main computer after everyone had clocked out. Someone must have left it on.”

“…Oh,” Luke said, his brow furrowing. He was silent for a moment as if contemplating something before a scowl crossed his features. He looked back to Austin, evening his expression. “That’s strange. I’ll talk to my team about it when I get the chance. Thank you.”

Austin nodded, watching as Luke gave him another tight smile before turning back around, continuing down the hallway, steps fast on the cold, concrete floor.

Austin sighed, turning back to face the direction he was headed in, struggling against the tired weight of his own legs to move forward once again. He trudged down the hallway, fumbling with the key card as he approached the large, locked door that led into his usual workplace.

Austin yawned, missing the key card slot the first time as his eyes crinkled and watered, only managing to smash the end of it into the display screen above the slot that told him that despite his effort the door remained locked. He managed to slot it in the second time, pulling it out after a buzz and a click that left the door in front of him unlocked for fifteen seconds exactly.

Austin pulled the door open, draping the lanyard around his neck where it belonged and stepping inside the lab. He almost made a reach for the light switch out of instinct but immediately stopped himself. That would hurt, there was a reason he kept them off usually.

So, with the lights off and the only glow in the room the iridescent blue being cast over the walls by the tank of the subject, Austin set to work. He found the filters in the storage compartment right where they should be, he unlatched the case of the EMX, quickly replaced the now grey filter with a bright new one, closed up the machine once again, and disposed of the old filter.

That was almost painfully easy, considering how painful the walk down had been. Oh well, Austin sighed, wiping his slightly dusty hands off on the front of his lab coat. It was all a part of the job.

Austin hummed lightly to himself as he walked down the row of computers making up the main control desk, his hand reaching into his pocket to fish out the clicker for the vault.

[GOOD](https://bit.ly/2SqOezR)

[NIGHT](https://bit.ly/2SqOezR)

“ _Holy_ Jesus fucking _shit_ -!” Austin jolted back from the control center, stepping on his own toes in his scramble and ending up falling backward, barely catching himself on the hard concrete floor with an impact that left his elbows jolting with pain. He kicked himself back further away from the computers out of sheer panic, before freezing on the floor, breathing heavily. His heart was in his ears, overtaking the echo of the subject’s automated words.

The computers didn’t utter another sound, but Austin didn’t move yet. He swallowed thickly.

“ _Fuck_ ,” He said out loud, his voice shaking. He moved to push himself up, but his arms were shaking too bad, so he opted to ease himself down so he was sprawled out on the concrete beneath him, staring at the dark ceiling with his heart still beating out of his chest.

He laid there for much longer than it took him to stop shaking, long enough for him to shiver at the coldness of the floor seeping through his lab coat and shirt.

Good thing he told Luke about someone leaving the sound test on, Austin would rather this never happen again. Not that it should have happened in the first place…

…

Wait a minute.

_Wait a minute._

_Fuck._

Austin scrambled to his feet. He looked up at the subject with wide eyes. The body was as still and unmoving as ever, suspended in place.

_Fuck_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again if you're having trouble with the words: https://bit.ly/2SqOezR

**Author's Note:**

> Figure out who mystery subject is? :eyes:
> 
> Anyway, if you can't get the last three words to work, please try putting this in your url bar: https://bit.ly/36JeQ4g
> 
> Ty for reading


End file.
